Aluminum hydride has been used to deposit a layer of aluminum metal on a silica or aluminum support which is subsequently reacted with a transition metal halide. See U.S. Pat. No. 3,897,364 issued July 29, 1975. The instant invention does not utilize metallic aluminum, nor halides of transition metals.
Aluminum hydrides have further been utilized in conjunction with supported transition metal oxides as in, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,912,419 issued Nov. 10, 1959 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,526,601 issued Sept. 1, 1970. In these cases, the aluminum hydride was not reacted with the supported transition metal oxides as in the instant invention, but serve as co-catalysts, frequently added to the reaction mixture separately from the supported catalyst.